Video Card

[John13971397]

I think I have a VGA card as I tried to set it in windows to display 256 colors and I had a picture on screen that was only 2" tall and to run 256 colors one would need an svga card as I understand and it I could be isa or pci, why can't I find any such cards on Ebay am I looking for the wrong card or would they be listed under another name?

[soybean]

Tell more about your computer?  Make and model?  How old?  Processor speed, amount of RAM, etc.?  

Your're not likely to find an ISA video card, nor should you want to.  They're very obsolete now.  

[John13971397]

Computer is a tradebox type it has 533 mhz processor, it has 32 meg pc 100 ram I order two 64 meg rams as it has 3 slots, it has two isa slots and three pci slots the video must be on the motherboard, and 10 g hard drive.  It had no operating system so I tried to install Xp but not enough ram so I installed windows 3.11 and in setup you can chose svga 256 colors as your choice, but I imagine you need the hardware to support this choice.

[GX1_Man]

32 meg RAM is way more than enough for Win 3.11. With the additional RAM Windows 2000 would be a good fit. It will also probably correctly identify the video card and function adequately.

[patio]

PCI video cards shouldn't be too tough to find at all...

[Track]

You should buy the cheapest graphics card u can buy.

They dont make graphics cards that cheap anymore so ull have to look at on Ebay, but a card that old probably wont work that well if its already used, but its ur only hope since anything u can buy today in retail would be too much for ur PC.

Look for something like a Voodo 2/3.

[soybean]

Since you already have Win XP, you could probably run Win XP on that computer without too much pain if you had at least 256MB of RAM.  So, if you replaced that 32MB module with a 128MB, you'd have 256MB (128 + 64 + 64).  Do you know the maximum amount of memory it can handle?

As far as video cards go, you can find some new PCI cards that should work.  I see no reason why this would not work:        
XFX GeForce MX4000 / 64MB DDR / PCI / VGA / TV Out / Video Card.  Or, maybe look at 32MB cards on ebay.

[John13971397]

I ran msd.exe and it comes up as vga model Ati [Vesa Oem Name Ati Mach64] it produces 16 colors anyway. When I get my ram chips will try to load Xp as it says when trying to load you need at least 64m someone looked on a box for Xp and they told me 128m so we will see.  As far as how much the motherboard can support I have no idea can't really find an brand name or good numbers unless they are on the bottom. This computer should be able to display 256 colors because if it was available in windows 3.11 this computor was surly built after that. It had SCSI card but I took it out have no need for it and no use leaving it in to take up power.

[soybean]

You said you originally had 32MB and that you ordered two 64MB modules.  So, you now have 160MB, right?  

Believe me, you don't want to run Win XP with 64MB unless you like to watch glaciers move; 128MB would at least put it in the turtles race.  

Your video problem sounds like a driver problem.  I can't tell how to fix it with Win 3.11.  I haven't even seen Win 3.1 in quite a few years.  

[John13971397]

My mistake I don't have vga card I have the integrated video which is part of the motherboard and are drivers ever available for this type of setup?

[GX1_Man]

If we knew the computer or motherboard make and model we could help you find the appropriate drivers.

[soybean]

Yes, drivers should be available from the motherboard manufacturer.  Do you know what motherboard is in that computer?  If not, you could download EVEREST Free Edition 2.20 and run it to get a report of all the components in your computer, that would provide the info you need to know where to go get the appropriate drivers.  I do not know whether EVEREST will work with Win 3.11.

[soybean]

If we knew the computer or motherboard make and model we could help you find the appropriate drivers.

I started to post, left my computer for awhile, then came back and posted, not knowing you had posted.  Do you know whether he could use EVEREST?

[GX1_Man]

Everest require's Win9x or better. There is probably a make or model available on the case or (shudder) look at the motherboard.

[patio]

Aida for older ver. of Windows...i'll try and track down a link but it might be tough to find.

Aida...